How are cities combating climate change?

A QUESTION

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OF DEVELOPMENT SYNTHESES OF AFD STUDIES AND RESEARCH

How are cities combating climate change?

http://librairie.afd.fr/filtres/?terms=1085

Aware of the role that they can play, cities have been organising themselves into networks since the 1990s (C40, Cities Climate Leadership Group, ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, etc.) to share their experiences and reinforce their actions. Their commitment now singles them out as leading players: for example, London has announced an 80% reduction in its emissions by 2050, which is one of the most ambitious objectives targeted at local authority level or even national level.

What are the enabling conditions for cities to commit?

The cities that engage in the fight against climate change are often more vulnerable than other municipalities to the consequences of this change.

Da Nang, in Vietnam, has been hit by twenty typhoons over the last decade, whereas only one typhoon was reported from 1964 to 2002. Agadir, in Morocco, has experienced increased flooding over recent years, with deadly flash floods in 2014. Periods of drought, flooding and the increased salinity of freshwater sources have negative effects on agricultural production. The visibility of these events enables local elected officials to justify stepping up climate actions.

Their commitment is all the more readily accepted if the municipality involved is vulnerable to other risks, such as earthquakes in Agadir or Lima, or the El Ni単o phenomenon in Peru.

The scientific community nonetheless remains prudent about the causality link between the increase in extreme events and global climate change.

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A comparative study conducted in five cities of the Global North and South (Agadir, Da Nang, Lima, London, Nantes) aimed at understanding their commitment to action on climate change. Why have they made this a priority?

What concrete actions have been launched? What challenges are they facing?

Cities are often blamed for being the main emitters of greenhouse gases (up to 75% of CO2 emissions are attributed to cities [IPCC, Climate Change Synthesis Report 2014]) due to the energy consumption tied to the activities they host: transport, industry, etc. But they are also the first to suffer from climate change: extreme climate events have more drastic outcomes in highly populated areas and the harmful effects of polluting activities are felt more strongly.

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CITIES HAVE BECOME KEY PLAYERS IN CLIMATE ISSUES

A second favourable condition is when ecological concerns and environmental policies are already present. This means that local climate strategies can be built on institutions, lines of financing and tools that had already been set up to address environmental subjects. In Peru, the 2009 Law laid the foundations for local environmental plans. Lima approved an urban agricultural programme and a scheme to protect green spaces in 2012, then went on to craft a local climate policy in 2014 (Gouldson et al., 2014).

Cancun COP15. In Lima, it was the hosting of COP20 that helped to speed up the vote for the local climate strategy in 2014. Similarly, Paris is keen to set the example for COP21 in December 2015: thermal rehabilitation of residential buildings, clean transport, renewable energies…

What concrete actions?

In all of the cities studied, the resources allocated to climate were first used to build up the local authorities’ human resources. In Agadir, a division for the environment and sustainable development was created in 2009. In Da Nang, a climate change coordination office (CCCO) was set up in 2011 with five staff and attached directly to the city-province executive.

A further advantage is the existence of a regulatory framework. This makes it possible to influence areas that do not depend on the powers of local authorities.

In China, norms on energy consumption have been introduced by the central government and enforced at local level (Zheng et al., 2012). France has been a pioneer in legislation and, since the 2010 Grenelle Laws, has had compulsory municipal climate-airenergy plans for towns with over 50,000 inhabitants, and this will soon be applied to towns of over 20,000 inhabitants.

As far as climate actions are concerned, field enquiries have reported that, in the main, regional diagnostics (carbon audits, vulnerability assessments) have been carried out and strategic plans and awareness-raising campaigns have been developed, but very little largescale investment has been observed.

A fourth frequently found ingredient is a political commitment to the climate issue. London, Nantes and Agadir quite clearly owe their progress to a specific political will, which can be explained by the ideological leanings of their local officials (the ecologists’ pressure on the local executive in Nantes and London), or by the choice of an innovation strategy, partly thanks to the search for international support, as in the case of Agadir.

This highlights the fact that climate change policies are only in their early stages. But there are no shortcuts: municipalities first need to analyse the existing situation, then develop strategies before launching actions. Yet, it also reflects the weakness of local resources dedicated to climate issues. This is why the local authority networks are advocating for direct access to international climate finance. Additionally, integrating the fight against climate change into sectoral policies (housing, transport, etc.) would help to optimise the climate impact of existing budgets.

External aid is the fifth enabling condition and represents considerable leverage particularly for cities in the Global South. Da Nang has received support for its climate strategy from the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, APEC and German, Japanese and French co-operations. Moreover, Vietnam is the world’s fourth largest beneficiary of financing through the “Clean Development Mechanisms” (253 CDM projects in 2013; source: APEC).

In fact, cities often implement “climate” projects without knowing it. For example, storm drains for poorer districts are primarily aimed at improving living conditions, but they also contribute to climate adaptation in cases where flooding is recurrent. Also, existing projects can be labelled as “climate” projects a posteriori without this being a misnomer. In Nantes, the changeover from gas to biomass to power urban heating, mainly for reasons of cost, turned out to be highly positive for the mitigation of GHG emissions.

Lastly, hosting large international conferences often provides a city with an opportunity to intensify its efforts. The Global Cities Covenant on Climate was thus adopted in Mexico in 2010, just ahead of the

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FORECASTS OF TONS OF CO 2 AVOIDED EACH YEAR THANKS TO THE BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM (BRT) IN AGADIR NUMBER

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The local authorities studied did indeed show a preference for climate co-benefits associated with economic and social objectives, often seen as priority.

They are prepared to invest heavily if there is a clear prospect of cutting the energy bill. Thus, solar energy in Agadir and the LEDs in Da Nang should enable these cities to make savings on public lighting, while also reducing emissions.

In all cases, as political stability over the long term is rarely a given, it is an advantage if civil society actors are involved in the approach and, more broadly, if the general public is aware of the issues at stake. In Lima, some districts and associations are now trying to step in to continue the actions undertaken by the former municipal team.

Next, local authorities have a limited control over GHG emissions. On average, the emissions from municipal activities and facilities account for only 1% (Paris) to 5% (Lyon) of total emissions. By taking coercive measures, they manage to act on 20 to 25% of the municipal emissions, but the impact of such measures is limited due to the effect of exogenous factors.

For the moment, climate considerations are integrated into urban policy more as the result of one-off opportunities rather than the rigorous application of a strategy. This runs the risk of getting priorities wrong: energy efficiency in buildings, for example, may be put at the top of the agenda in order to obtain grants, whereas transport is the highest-emitting sector. In addition, the long-term effects are in danger of being neglected. It would thus be useful to define a concerted strategy, even if this evolves over time.

The congestion charge introduced in London in 2003 resulted in a 21% decrease during the first two years and a 16% reduction of CO2 emissions, but air quality did not improve (ADEME, 2014). In fact, the hypercentre protected by the toll represents only 1.4% of the Greater London area: the pollutants emitted by the surrounding area circulate due to air currents.

The flip side for committed cities En 2015, most of the cities committed to climate change action recognised that they are facing several challenges and constraints.

To achieve a significant level of mitigation, cities need to convince other public and private actors to make voluntary commitments. In fact, over threequarters of urban emissions come from private sources: energy consumption by businesses and the construction industry, home heating, individual travel, freight transport, etc. Municipalities need to become “local leaders”, implying the uneasy task of redefining their role. In the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (2012–2013) and Greater Lyon (2009–2011), this was put into practice through large-scale consultation workshops to encourage private initiatives, notably in partnership with the Chambers of Commerce.

To begin with, training for municipal employees, recruitment of experts and the creation of dedicated departments are no guarantee of success. Often, these new services operate in an excessively isolated way. If technical divisions are not associated with the approach, it is difficult to integrate climate objectives into sectoral policies.

In addition, electoral changes may call the efforts undertaken into question. In Lima, the mayor elected in 2015 set aside the implementation of the climate strategy voted by the previous team and funnelled investments into building new infrastructure, mainly roads. These turnarounds are not systematic: Boris Johnson, the Greater London Conservative mayor elected in 2008, confirmed the objective of the GHG emissions reduction set by his Labour predecessor.

On the other hand, stability often provides an enabling context, as in Nantes where the Socialists have had a majority since 1989 and the ecologist councillors have been present for over a decade.

I CARE & CONSULT AND GRET

MATTHIEU ROBIN Project manager, Local Authorities and Urban Development Division, AFD

Consultants, authors of the study on which this paper is based

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IRÈNE SALENSON Research officer, Research and Development Division, AFD

Finally, one of the main difficulties lies in the lack of reliable and regularly updated scientific data and research. Several countries, regions or cities have observatories to monitor energy consumption and air quality, but these are costly and local authorities in the Global South sometimes lack resources. For example, daily road travel stems from a group of factors that are difficult to control simultaneously (property prices, fuel prices, location of employment areas, etc.). Added to this is the difficulty of disconnecting the effect of local measures from the effect of national or supranational

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measures. Given the uncertainty as to the effectiveness of a given action, local climate strategies – even in flagship cities – are at present most often based on the criteria of investment cost, financial opportunity

or visibility than on precise calculations that would ensure a significant emission reduction. As in the case of States, there are thus no clear signals that cities will keep their “climate” promises for the year 2030.

Heating network Centre Loire In 2017

GRAPHIQUE 1. LE RÉSEAU DE CHALEUR URBAIN NANTAIS Heating network Biomass and gas power plant

Gas power plant Waste-to-energy plant

Source: http://erena-nantes.reseau-chaleur.com/

REFERENCES ADEME (2014), Les zones à faibles émissions à travers l’Europe : déploiement, retours d’expériences, évaluation d’impact et efficacité du système, June.

APEC (2013), Low Carbon Model Town, Feasibility Study for Da Nang City, EWG 20/2012A. Gouldson A., McAnulla F. et al. (2014), The Economics of Low Carbon, Climate Resilient Cities: Lima-Callao, Peru Pontificia Universidad Católica, University of Leeds, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, British Embassy in Lima, Inter-American Development Bank.

IPCC (2014), Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report, IPCC, Geneva.

Zheng N., Zhou N., Fino-Chen C. et D. Fridley (2012), Evaluation of Local Enforcement of Energy Efficiency Standards and Labeling Program in China, China Energy Group, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

A QUESTION OF DEVELOPMENT is an AFD Research Department publication which presents syntheses of studies and research initiated or supported by AFD. This series aims to summarize the questioning, the approach, the lessons and the prospects of the study presented. Thus, it intends to open new avenues for action and thinking. The analyses and conclusions of this document are formulated under the responsibility of its author(s). They do not necessarily reflect the point of view of AFD or its partner institutions • Publication director: Anne PAUGAM • Editorial director: Gaël GIRAUD • Agence Française de Développement: 5, rue Roland Barthes - 75598 Paris Cedex 12 • Copyright: November 2015 • ISSN: 2271-7404 • Conception: • Layout: Eric THAUVIN • Tranlation: Gill GLADSTONE •